When Neighbors Become "Evil"
When politics becomes a battle of good versus evil, neighbors stop seeing each others humanity.
This is a special editor’s note about the mission and direction of Every Knee Shall Bend. I hope you’ll indulge this personal story about “why we write”.
I did something in 2019 that I had wanted to do my entire life: I entered the Catholic Church.
I came from a family of “nones.” We were not atheists convinced that God was dead. We just never cared much about religion. Church was never part of my life. But in 2019, I joined the Church because I was drawn to its mystery, its lineage, and its history.
Looking back, the seeds were planted when I was a kid at a Catholic middle school in suburban Detroit. It was the first place where I felt safe and where order gave me space to learn. I was the first in my family to attend college, and it took me twenty years to earn my undergraduate degree because I was working full-time to make it happen.
Most of that career was spent in politics. I ran for office. I managed campaigns. I trained people in how to stand up for the most disenfranchised members of our society. I cared about compassion, even when it was considered a losing message. That conviction has never left me. It shapes my life as a doctoral candidate, where my Jesuit training calls it cura personalis: care for the whole person.
As a researcher, I am drawn to numbers and patterns. I want to know what moves and motivates people. What are they telling us, even when they do not realize they are saying it? That is the lens I bring to the study of Christian nationalism.
The photo at the top of this post is from my own neighborhood. Someone took the time to hand-paint a giant sign declaring that opponents of Trump/Vance 2024 were “evil.” That word was not directed at corruption or violence. It was aimed at neighbors. People who mow their lawns a few houses away. People who live in the same community but hold different political views.
Seeing that sign was a jolt I had not felt since January 6th.
It made visible how the language of spiritual warfare has seeped into our daily lives. Politics becomes a struggle of good versus evil, and disagreement is cast as demonic. This is not just rhetoric, it reshapes how communities see one another. It convinces people that the family across the street is not just wrong, but dangerous. That is the kind of transformation Christian nationalism brings, and it is why I believe it must be understood and resisted.
Recent survey research underscores how timely this conversation is. The Pew Religious Landscape Study, released in 2025, found that the share of Americans identifying as religiously unaffiliated continues to grow, even as the overall decline of Christianity appears to have slowed. That mix of decline and persistence shows why struggles over religion in public life feel so sharp. The nation is plural, and pluralism is the condition in which these tensions unfold.
People often misunderstand the problem. Some think any critique of Christian nationalism is an attack on religion itself. I do not believe that. I am a religious person. I believe. My concern is not religion. My concern is what happens when faith becomes supremacist. What makes this country beautiful is its pluralism, the right to practice or not practice, the refusal to privilege one tradition above the rest.
That is what this Substack is about. When you read here, I want you to leave with a clear grasp of the facts on the ground. I want you to know you are not alone. I want you to have the language to talk with others in your church and community about the dangers of Christian nationalism, and about how fragile pluralism really is.
Pluralism is not just a political arrangement. It is a cornerstone of what makes this country unique. It is what has made us a light to others across history. And when that light begins to flicker, it is our responsibility to supply the oxygen to keep it alive.
This is just the beginning. If this resonates with you, I invite you to subscribe and share this newsletter with others who care about faith, democracy, and pluralism. Your voice matters in this conversation. Leave a comment, tell me what you are seeing in your own community, and join me in paying attention together.
Further Reading
Gorski, P. S., & Perry, S. L. (2022). The flag and the cross: White Christian nationalism and the threat to American democracy. Oxford University Press.
Taylor, M. D. (2024). The violent take it by force: The Christian movement that is threatening our democracy.Broadleaf Books.
Whitehead, A. L., & Perry, S. L. (2020). Taking America back for God: Christian nationalism in the United States. Oxford University Press.
Pew Research Center. (2025). 2023-24 U.S. Religious Landscape Study interactive database. https://doi.org/10.58094/3zs9-jc14
Pew Research Center. (2025, February 26). Decline of Christianity in the U.S. has slowed, may have leveled off: Findings from the 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study.https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off/
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